Melania Trump tames Christmas

By Rachel Tashjian, CNN

(CNN) — On Monday, Melania Trump revealed the 2025 White House Christmas decorations. And with them, she showed that she is no longer the glamorous Grinch who trolled Christmas.

Holiday decorations, of all things, have been a particular source of controversy for the elusive first lady. Early on in her husband’s first presidential term, she earned a reputation for creating memeable holiday tableaux: a hallway of large white sticks, in 2017, and a parade of blood red cone-shaped trees the following year – both of which inspired countless internet jokes about dystopian film sets.

The festive tradition, generally considered innocuous under most administrations, has at times been Trump’s torment. In 2020, her former senior advisor Stephanie Winston Wolkoff released audio she secretly recorded of the first lady lamenting the public emphasis on yuletide flair in 2018. “I’m working … my a** off on the Christmas stuff, that you know, who gives a f*** about the Christmas stuff and decorations? But I need to do it, right?” She continued, expressing frustration with the perception that, as she decked the halls, she was then asked about the Trump’s administration’s family separation policy in an illegal immigration crackdown: “OK, and then I do it and I say that I’m working on Christmas and planning for the Christmas and they said, ‘Oh, what about the children that they were separated?’ Give me a f** break.”

These earlier Christmas displays were some of her finest works of provocation: so outlandish, so bizarre, that you couldn’t tell what she was thinking. Were they bad taste run amok? A reflection of her annoyance with having to perform a task she didn’t care about?

But now Trump is singing a different tune – or carol, as it were – as she steps more into the spotlight. She will be the subject of an Amazon documentary, directed by Brett Ratner, releasing in January. (The film will be Ratner’s first major project since 2017, when he was accused of sexual misconduct by numerous women. He has denied allegations.) Amazon reportedly paid an unprecedented $40 million for the film, with Trump set to pocket at least $28 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. On Friday, she announced the launch of her own production company, suggesting further plans to capitalize on her public profile.

This year, Trump has put on, if not a full-blown Currier and Ives, Bing-Crosby-in-the-snow nostalgia fest, then something much more subdued than her notorious season’s memeings. The theme, “Home is where the heart is,” celebrates a blend of patriotism and family, with tributes to the country’s upcoming 250th anniversary in the form of red, white and blue ornaments and bows. In the Blue Room sits the official 18-foot White House Christmas Tree festooned with frosted ornaments in honor of each state. In the Red Room is a tribute to Trump’s children’s wellbeing platform, “Be Best,” with a fleet of Prussian blue butterflies alighting on a tree, topiaries and wreaths.

The decorations recall the more traditional designs the first lady conjured in 2019 and 2020, though they are even more pared back. The aesthetic is especially surprising as President Donald Trump has covered the Oval Office with gold trim, and committed to building an enormous $300 million ballroom in place of the demolished East Wing.

A video released by the first lady on social media captures the mood. She glides through the halls of the White House in a black double-breasted coat, the camera lingering over the military-like buttons, which appear to show a bird. With manicured fingers, she nestles ornaments, places ribbons, caresses butterfly wings.

(Only two choices could be categorized as potentially outré: the 10,000 butterflies in the Red Room, so numerous that they have a slight Hitchcockian quality that is mostly dispelled by their pretty color; and Lego portraits of her husband and George Washington.

It is not quite a Ralph Lauren Christmas; maybe a Ralph Lauren diffusion line Christmas. Still, on video, Trump and her décor look designed to fly under the radar. Unlikely to cause a stir or make a fuss, they are conceived as Christmas decoration business as usual – a mindset that feels exotic in the Trump orbit.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.